GREENVILLE, S.C. Beyond the obvious satisfaction that came with Davidson's 71-53 Southern Conference victory over Furman Wednesday night in Timmons Arena, Wildcats coach Bob McKillop found an uncommon delight in how his team won.

"When do you see one of my teams make two 3-pointers in a game against a team that plays zone (defense) half the game and we win by 18 on the road?" McKillop asked after his Wildcats improved to 16-5 overall and a league-best 10-1 on conference play.

There was plenty for McKillop and the Wildcats to be pleased with in the sometimes rugged game.

After losing at Samford last Saturday with one of its poorest first halves of the season, Davidson bounced back with an aggressive performance that produced balanced scoring, disruptive defense and an impressive 23-for-26 stat line from the foul line.

Forward De'Mon Brooks led Davidson with 19 points while guards Nik Cochran had 14 points and J.P. Kuhlman had 13 points, the backcourt duo scoring 16 of their combined 27 points from the foul line. Cochran also had seven rebounds, including three on the offensive end, center Jake Cohen had eight rebounds and the Wildcats won the rebounding battle by 10.

"We just had to go back to fundamentals to get back rolling," Brooks said. "We were on our heels in the Samford game. In this game, we started out fighting."

What bothered McKillop and the Wildcats about their first league loss on Saturday was their tentative nature. It was in contrast to how the Wildcats have played most of this season and it created a 16-point halftime deficit.

At Furman, the Wildcats were up 40-30 at halftime and were successful in dictating the tempo. It wasn't always pretty - Davidson made just two of 12 3-point attempts and Furman shot 34 percent from the field - but it was marked by the kind of tenacity McKillop wants from his team.

Holding a stat sheet, McKillop pointed to his team's 17 personal fouls against Furman. At Samford, the Wildcats were called for 29 fouls.

"What pleased me was our aggressiveness on offense and defense," McKillop said. "When you're aggressive, you're going to make mistakes but those mistakes don't lead to problems.

"It's a great lesson of life. When you're hesitant, you have problems. Ready, ready, ready, aim....boom. You get blown up. We weren't ready, ready, ready. We aimed."

Davidson led by four early in the second half when McKillop called a timeout. His team responded by quickly stretching the lead to 12 sparked by Tom Droney and Clint Mann.

Cohen rolled his right ankle during a pre-game shootaround and did it again in the second half against Furman.

He returned to action but it reminded McKillop of the same thing happening to Stephan Curry in the same general area of the same court in Curry's junior year, an injury that hampered him the rest of the season.